


Future Kings

by Eiliem



Series: Tiny!Ace and Tinier!Luffy [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Brotherhood, Childhood, D Brothers, Ficlet, Fluff, Gen, POV Third Person, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-25
Updated: 2009-11-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 17:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eiliem/pseuds/Eiliem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ace comes back from training to find Luffy has acquired a new hat - and a new dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future Kings

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this _days_ before chapter 551 came out. Was promptly Jossed. Oh so very Jossed. XP

"I'm going to be the Pirate King!" Three weeks trying to not get killed by his grandfather and of course the first thing he meets when he gets back is Luffy with an insane dream.

...Luffy wearing somebody else's straw hat.

"Mmmm. Where's Shanks?"

"Gone."

Without his hat? "When's he going to be back?"

"He's not." So Shanks left the hat behind to pacify his brother. Clever conniving bastard.

Luffy looks... calm, and nowhere near pitching the fit he would have three weeks ago, if someone had told him his idol was gone for good. But Ace doesn't have the energy to deconstruct his brother's relationship with the red-haired pirate; he's been enduring his grandfather's definition of "love" for nearly a month and all he wants is food, a bath, and a real bed. And Luffy is in the way.

"Luffy, _food_."

"Yeah!" Ace allows his brother to drag him towards town, rubber limbs vibrating with _so much_ more energy than he can summon just now.

"...and then he gave me his hat... give it back to him... Pirate King..." Luffy is babbling a high-speed, and there's sense there, Ace knows it, but he's putting a hold on paying attention until he's eaten. And possibly slept. And bathed.

He's going to be _clean_ soon.

And there's Makino. With food. For him. _Bless you_, Makino.

By the third bowl of stew Ace is seriously considering building a shrine in her name. He has also regained enough coherency to enjoy the argument Luffy and the barkeeper are having over his brother's refusal to drink the glass of juice she's placed in front of him.

"Shanks said pirates don't drink juice!"

"Shanks was just teasing you."

"Shanks said pirates don't drink juice and I'm going the be the Pirate _King_ so I absolutely don't drink juice!"

Ah yes, that. Ace vaguely remembers Luffy saying something about being the Pirate King...four or five times on their way to Makino and her stew. He wonders how his brother went from _dying_ to serve on Shanks crew to deciding that he's going to rule over all pirates.

"Listen, Luffy-"

When Ace wakes up face first in his half-eaten bowl of stew, Luffy is wearing a sullen expression and the glass is empty, and he is _so_ sorry he missed seeing how Makino bullied his brother into changing his mind but when he opens his mouth to ask her she just smiles at his and tells him to wipe his face.

And now he's being herded towards a bed and someone is yanking his boots off - and Ace knows it's not Luffy because his brother is bouncing hyperactively in his face, although he somehow calms down enough to help whoever tuck him in. And then Luffy leans in close, gentle as he can be every second blue moon, and whisper-shouts in Ace's ear:

"Ace, _Ace_! I'm going to be the Pirate King."

"M'okay Luf-"

_____________________________________________

_"I'm going to be the Pirate King!"_

Ace remembers these words, repeated so many times over these past years, as he looks up at the man who chose him. The man he belongs to now.

_sonfathercaptainmine_

The new mark on his back is burning, in equal parts pride and pain, and he wants to laugh with the sheer exhilaration of it. Because all the dreams are here, and he's living them now. And he'll be here when Luffy comes to pursue his.

_"Ace, _Ace_! I'm going to be the Pirate King."_

Go for it Luffy.

But I'm betting my dream on someone else.


End file.
